December 19, 2023 - Iceland volcano erupts

While scientists say the volcano erupting on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula is starting to diminish, that does not mean the risk is over.

There are currently three vents of lava pushing through a crack that is about 2 miles long, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. It warned Tuesday that more vents could still open up “along the original fissure as well as further north or south.”

The volcano erupted about 1.8 miles away from the town of Grindavík — an area where residents were evacuated from their homes earlier this year in anticipation of the eruption. Iceland’s Civil Protection Agency previously said the magma tunnel that is forming could reach Grindavik, but it didn’t know where the magma might break through.

The IMO said there were about 90 minutes between the “first indicators and the start of the eruption” on Monday and said that any window of warning for new vents opening could be short.

Jess Phoenix, a volcanologist and geologist, echoed that sentiment of unpredictability. She told CNN that it is hard to tell what will come next. 

If the eruption continues to keep spreading south, it could put Grindavik in danger, she said. The biggest risk, however, is to property since most people have been evacuated.

“Right now most of the erupted activity is on the north end of what we saw from those images earlier – and that’s actually a good thing. That’s less populated,” Phoenix said.

Authorities in southwest Iceland have set up a checkpoint about five miles away from the eruption zone — the closest point to the lava flow where members of the public have been gathering to watch.

A CNN crew was given access inside the perimeter and brought less than a mile away from the active fissures.

The event is considered a fissure eruption, meaning lava is bursting from a long crack in the earth’s core that can extend for miles. The good news, Pleitgen said, is that this type of eruption doesn’t send ash into the atmosphere, which could prove disruptive to air travel. Fissure eruptions, however, can last for a long time and can also release dangerous gases, experts say.

The lava is “very thin” and “liquidy" and is emerging from a small number of places along the fissure, Pleitgen said. The area is hilly with black, volcanic earth covered in snow. Even with fires, it’s cold outside, Pleitgen said, with temperatures reaching as low as 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

Still, he said the weather changes “extremely quickly" with strong winds giving way without warning to alternating periods of rain, snow, and sun.

“The elements are very strong because we’re right in the center of the Atlantic Ocean,” Pleitgen said.

Authorities are very active inside the cordoned-off zone. The nearby town of Grindavík has been evacuated for weeks as the volcano showed signs of eruption. A fissure that emerged running through that town has no lava coming from it yet.

Still, life in the urban area is proceeding mostly normally, Pleitgen said. Keflavík Airport, the country’s largest, is a half-hour drive from the volcano. The eruption is visible to plane traffic, but operations remain normal. Most roads in and out of the area are also functioning as usual.

“People seem pretty chilled about it. They’re quite used to volcanic eruptions,” Pleitgen said.

A volcano has dramatically erupted in Iceland, expelling spectacular bursts of lava onto the landscape and emitting huge plumes of smoke after weeks of seismic activity prompted the evacuation of a nearby town.

Officials said the eruption was not posing a threat to life but warned the area was closed to all traffic and strongly urged people to stay away.

Take a look at what the scene looks like:

Scientists are working to assess the situation in Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula where a volcanic eruption took place Monday night — a process that could take several days.

While the eruption does not pose a threat to life, according to the country's government, gas pollution could reach the area of the capital, Reykjavík, in the next day, reports from the weather service say. Police are asking people to stay away from the area of the eruption, warning that the gas "can be dangerous.”

The size of the eruption continued to decrease on Tuesday, but the country's meteorological office recorded more than 300 earthquakes over the magma channels since the eruption started.

Here's what we know so far:

The size of the volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula “continues to diminish,” with the lava flow reducing to just “one-quarter” of the levels seen on Monday, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said in an update Tuesday. 

Gas pollution might be noticeable on Tuesday in Vestmannaeyjar, an archipelago off Iceland’s southern coast, but other populated areas will be unaffected, the IMO added.

Due to the weather forecast, however, gas pollution may reach the capital area, where Reykjavík is situated, late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, according to the IMO. 

Magma fountains are lower than at the start of the eruption, “reaching about 30 meters at their highest,” which is about 98 feet, the IMO said. There are currently five eruption vents spread along the original volcanic fissure, but the length of the fissure remains unchanged, the met office added.  

Meanwhile, Landsnet, a power distribution agency in Iceland, has increased its alert to “emergency level,” a Landsnet spokesperson told CNN in an email.

Landsnet is “looking at possible lava flow scenarios and estimating whether further preparations to protect transmission infrastructure are necessary,” the spokesperson said.

The company is looking to build defenses around three power masts located outside the protective wall around the Svartsengi power plant, but the spokesperson told CNN that they do not foresee any power outages.

The main power line supplying the Reykjanes peninsula, called “Suðurnesjalína 1,” has not been affected by the volcanic eruption and is not in any danger, the spokesperson added.

A volcano has erupted on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Monday.

Iceland — which sits on a tectonic plate boundary that continually splits apart, pushing North America and Eurasia away from each other along the line of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge — is home to 32 active volcanoes.

As such, the island nation is accustomed to volcanic eruptions, though they often occur in the wilderness, away from populated areas. The Bárðarbunga volcanic system situated in the center of the country erupted in 2014, producing lava that covered 84 square kilometers (32 square miles) of highland that didn’t damage any communities.

The Fagradalsfjall volcanic system erupted in 2021 for the first time in more than 6,000 years. It also didn’t threaten populated areas and even became a tourist attraction as people flocked to witness the eruption.

Experts don’t expect a volcanic eruption to cause the same level of chaos as that seen in 2010 when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, since it is unlikely to involve the glacial ice that led to a huge ash cloud.

About 100,000 flights were canceled, affecting 2 million people, as a result of the ash spewed out by the 2010 eruption, which threatened to stall aircraft engines and cause electrical failure.

“Eyjafjallajökull involved an eruption through or next to glacial ice that melted and provided water that made the eruption more explosive than it would otherwise have been, hence the high eruption plume and very wide ash dispersal,” Lionel Wilson, emeritus professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Lancaster University, told CNN last month.

Suðurnes police, which covers Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula where a volcanic eruption took place Monday night, said scientists need “several days to assess the situation there,” in a statement released Tuesday.

“We will reassess the situation every hour,” police said. 

All roads to Grindavík will be closed for everyone, except emergency responders and teams working with the authorities in the “danger zone” near the area, according to the statement. 

Police are asking people not to approach the area of the eruption, and to be “aware that gas emitted from it can be dangerous.”

Icelandair released a statement at 10 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, reiterating that the volcano eruption has not impacted their flight schedule.

“At this time, the eruption does not affect our operations or Keflavík airport. Our flight schedule remains unchanged,” the statement said.

Icelandair added it is monitoring the situation closely and will inform passengers of any new developments.

“Eruptions and earthquakes are a part of our DNA, and we Icelanders are always well prepared for volcanic events. The country’s incredible nature has given us excellent training and expertise to deal with unique situations,” the statement said.

The Icelandic Tourist Board said that notably, previous eruptions in the area did not impact air travel to and from the country, in a statement on their website.

The volcanic eruption on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula is releasing "considerable" toxic gases, the Icelandic Tourist Board said in an email to CNN on Tuesday.

The eruption is not expected to impact any populated areas or critical infrastructure in the coming days, the Icelandic Tourist Board said, adding no further evacuations are planned at this stage.

The lava flow is not currently expected to reach any part of the town of Grindavik or nearby infrastructure, according to the Icelandic Tourist Board.

The volcanic eruption on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula does not pose a threat to life, the country's government said in a statement Tuesday.

The eruption began at 10:17 p.m. local time northeast of the town of Grindavik on the Reykjanes peninsula, according to the government. This is the fourth eruption since 2021 in the area, and the largest so far with an fissure opening of four kilometers (2.5 miles).

The area is currently closed to all traffic, the government said, while strongly warning people not to approach the area. 

The nearby town of Grindavik was already evacuated on November 10 as a precaution after several days of seismic activity.

The government reported that there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland, and international flight corridors remain open.

The government said this eruption follows intense seismic activity over the past few weeks and is classified as a fissure eruption, which does not usually result in large explosions or significant production of ash dispersed into the stratosphere.